Pre-turn:
Look around. I spend a good chunk of time MM-ing. I'm trying not to overdo it -- we're in the home stretch -- but there are a number of cities with specialist mismatch (e.g. 6 scientists and 2 taxmen).
IBT:
Zzz...
H2 1912 AD:
Dial up Austria-Hungary and declare.
Linz looks hard at first with two retreats, but the next two Mark VIIIs break the walls.
Pressburg costs us 1 Ford
Graz costs us 5 Harley Scouts
Rijeka goes far better, costing only 1 Harley
Triest costs 2 Harleys
Lienz, in the desert, sees me forget about the movement cost for Mark VIIIs -- one loses a movement point before I switch to Fords...which see 2-3 losses before the city falls.
Pula is ROUGH, costing 6 Harleys before the defenders give up.
Innsbruck is now in range for our Mark VIIIs, but we lose one in the assault.
I have tons of troops left, but the only places to attack are Prague and Salzburg. Both of those are 4 tiles from our border. I'm half-tempted to declare on Italy just to keep the rest of our troops busy!
Jan 1913 AD:
Battle of Salzburg:
It goes exceptionally well. We have a few retreats but no losses
Battle of Prague:
Costs us 1 Ford.
Battle of Aussig:
Two Armies soften up the walls. Harleys do the rest.
which opens the way to...
Battle of Budapest:
We lose 2 Fords, but now we control Hofburg!
Battle of Vienna:
We lose 1 Ford.
Battle of Belgrade:
Fords do most of the work, plus our Harley army gets into the fray.
... Austria-Hungary isn't dead? What? Oh, they have the city of Meroe, far from our borders (our border with Italy is in C-8; Meroe is in B-6, almost B-5).
After pausing to consult, the path is clear: We hitaly.
Battle of Pompeii:
Lots of defenders, lots of retreats. Three losses, but we get a Leader!
Interestingly, Italy has a Chariot army in the city.
Battle of Pisae:
We lose 2 Harley scouts. Better than I expected. Only 1 promotion from reg to vet, though.
Battle of Hispalis:
Very similar -- two scouts lost.
Battle of Antium:
We lose 4 Mark VIIIs
Battle of Ravenna:
We lose 1 Mark VIII
IBT:
Turkey ends our Cotton/Spices deal.
Italy sends a TON of forces against us, killing 2 Infantry near Pompeii and wiping out an entire stack of ~22 Mark VIIIs (plus 2-3 Infantry that were covering them). They lost 28 of their units in battle.
Interwar Period -> Communism
Ordnance Factory built in Washington.
Antium, Prague, Pompeii, Salzburg, Eindhoven, Triest all riot. Resistance ends in most.
Jul 1913 AD:
WW hits in a big way. I set the lux slider to 10% and still have to scroll through to hire a lot of clowns.
Battle of Lutetia:
The first two units to the wall break right through. Huh, now I feel silly for committing as many troops as I did (but not too silly; I've had "sure things" fall apart, thanks RNG!)
Battle of Neapolis goes equally well!
Battle of Rome:
Field Artillery kills Musketman
Field Artillery kills Musketman
Ford kills Italian Late Pikeman
Ford kills Italian Late Pikeman
Ford kills Italian Late Pikeman
Ford dies
Ford dies
Ford kills Italian Bombard
Ford kills Hospitaller Knight, gets a Leader (MacArthur)
Mark VIII kills Hospitaller Knight
Mark VIII kills Hospitaller Knight
Mark VIII kills Italian Bombard, appropriately promoting Patton!
Army kills redlined Chariot
We gain ANOTHER two Leaders (Washington and Lee) while cleaning up the Italian field army near Rome.
IBT:
Italy doesn't attack, they only move troops towards our current border.
Austria-Hungary bombards a couple of cities.
Poland ends our gold-for-horses (and silver, and furs) deal. I let it go.
Hoover's comes in.
Jan 1914 AD:
Battle of Byzantium:
Flamethrower kills Pike
Two Fords do the rest.
Battle of Veii:
Armies kill 2 Musketmen and 3 Pikes, then a regular Harley kills a wounded Crossbowman.
Battle of Cumae:
2 Armies kill 3 Musketmen. Cakewalk.
We get another Leader (Sherman) killing some stray Austrian units.
I change a lot of in-progress builds to Infantry since we're winding down the game. I usually want to optimize cities to hit the next production breakpoint (e.g. 20, 27, or 40 spt for infantry).
IBT:
Lots of bombardments. One Austrian Dragoon kills our Ford near the Polish border.
Nubia wants to trade maps. Nah.
Oceania destroys Austria-Hungary!
Polish raider sinks while attacking our Flying Boat!
Poland also lands an expeditionary force near New Orleans.
Veii riots. There are still two resisters
Cumae riots. One resister left.
Jul 1914 AD:
Battle of Lugdunum:
Two M-1A1 Light tanks make short work of the defenders.
Battle of Viroconium:
We lose 1 Ford before we break the defenders.
Battle of Brundisium:
Harley Scout Armies can reach! The first one kills a defender.
Then we bombard with planes, redlining the visible defender.
Harley Scout Army kills the redlined Pike and destroys the town.
OK, Poland time. They're being aggressive, so this is a cinch.
"Remove or declare"
Right off the bat, we lose 5 Harley Scouts attacking a Polish Grenadier/Hussar/Musketeer army. We lose two to a Rifleman and two more to the Army, plus one to an Artillery before we clear the stack.
Battle of Szczecin:
We have lots of ships in the area; they sink some ships in harbor, destroy the harbor, and redline two defenders.
We only have Regular American Infantry WWI available, but they prove more than equal to the task. 616 gold.
Next up, we clear out all the Polish units we can see near the old Polish/Italian border. We lose around two dozen units, including our first autoproduced Heavy Tank
Poland had a LOT of units in the field.
Battle of Gdansk:
We lose 2 Harley Scouts before they run over the Riflemen. 942 gold.
I build the city of Not-Quite-Portsmouth to support landings at L'vov next turn. Naval assets in the area damage the defenders nicely (wounding everything as far as I can tell without fully redlining everything).
IBT:
Poland loses 3 Adventurers trying to break a perimeter I set up around them.
Israel wants MPP + RoP. Nah.
Jan 1915 AD:
Battle of Gorzow:
Armies wipe out 3 Rifles...656 gold.
Battle of Karlskrona:
Two Harley armies wipe out the defenders. 1005 gold.
Battle of L'vov:
Ships bombard all the defenders down to 1hp
3 Infantry storm the harbor walls and seize the city. 1016 gold.
Battle of Olsztyn:
It's pretty bloody with Harley Scouts forcing a river crossing. We lose 7 Harleys before the city falls. 1027 gold.
Battle of Krakow:
This one is even worse! We lose 12 Harleys in taking the city, but now we control Hagia Sophia. 1039 gold.
Battle of Kalisz:
We lose 10 Harleys here. No river -- I didn't expect it to be so bad. Thanks, RNG. 1053 gold.
That opens the way to...
Battle of Opole:
We lose 2 elite Fords but gain a Leader (Jackson). 711 gold.
Battle of Torun:
No losses! 1096 gold.
Battle of Warsaw:
Armies make short work of the defenders. 1112 gold.
Battle of Wroclaw:
I send in the remaining Armies...AND WE ACTUALLY LOSE A HARLEY ARMY!
Then we lose 3 Harley Scouts once the Armies have softened up the defenders. 1130 gold.
Battle of Gneizo:
We lose 5 Harley Scouts, but the city falls just the same. 1149 gold.
Handoff notes:
I put some Infantry in Steamers in Not-Quite-Portsmouth and steamed towards L'vov. Those Infantry can storm Uppsala harbor next turn with naval gunfire support.
I left some troops fortified by Picatinny Arsenal. Lots of wounded troops are healing there as well. Workers are fortified near Bombay nearby.
Troops are in place to attack Uppsala, Goteborg, Bialystok, Gavle, and Poznan next turn.
I rebased planes to Gniezo, thinking that it would give them the most options for bombing runs next turn. We'll probably hit 58% territory in conquering Poland, but if not, hey, we'll be on the Canadian border.
Here's our core, fully developed and humming along:
This is the Polish front. Note that we're past the bottleneck of Viroconium. The units going for Gavle really got bogged down.
Then here's what used to be the proud Austria-Hungary and Italian states:
Looks like Poland will be a slug fest. 
![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
everyone.
